Screen time and childhood overweight/obesity: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

BACKGROUND: Controlling childhood overweight/obesity would help early prevention on children from getting chronic noncommunicable diseases, exposing to screen for long periods may increase the risk of overweight/obesity due to lack of physical activity and tend to intake too much energy, and the relationship between screen time and overweight/obesity is inconsistent. Thus, the object of the present study was to estimate the relationship between screen time and overweight/obesity in children (<18 years) by systematically review prevalence studies. METHODS: We collected data from relevant studies published up to May 2019 using predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. And all the literatures were searched in PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, and Web of Science. RESULTS: A total of 16 studies met the criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. When compared with the screen time <2 hr/day, an increased overweight/obesity risk among children was shown in the screen time ≥2 hr/day (OR = 1.67; 95% CI [1.48, 1.88], P < .0001). The subgroup analysis showed a positive association between the different types of screen time and overweight/obesity among children. CONCLUSION: Based on our study, increasing screen time could be a risk factor for being overweight/obesity in children and adolescents.